Escaping Sol: YA Edition
by Ranma15177
Summary: Bella is forever changed by her second encounter with the Volturi. Now it is up to all of the Cullens to find out the secrets of the mysterious Lillith, the intentions of the Volturi, and the fate of the 'Innocent.' Altered to be YA Rated
1. Chapter 1

Escaping Sol: YA Edition

Chapter 1:

Rising Above the Dawn:

Ranma15177

AN:

I'm writing a little story called Escaping Sol, but it doesn't reach quite the audience it could because it is a "mature" story. One of my readers, Tammy, was incredible, and did endless hours of labor to make this work a YA story. I would never have even begun to go about a project this large… and so I owe her an ENDLESS amount of thanks. I have another beta named Cullenista who regularly goes out of her way as well to make sure each chapter is not grammar impaired. She's an incredible writer, so look her up as well.

BPOV:

For the first time in what felt like months I opened my eyes. None of the burning pain that had accompanied my change into this new life was evident when I flexed my fingers and toes. I felt very stiff, as if every muscle in my body had tensed up at once. Perhaps this was a natural state for one such as I? Maybe my body would forever be stuck in a state of what could only be described as rigor mortis. That is what this was right? Un-life? Vampirism was a cold endless damnation that was meant for an unchanging creature that thirsted endlessly for the blood of their once human companions. This is what I had been told over and over by my love. I want to say that the event itself had not been a surprise. I want to say that I had honestly weighed my options in my hand and made a decision to be like this… but this is not how I had wanted to experience this transformation. I had been left to scream and tear at my body. I saw the bloody hand prints left on the remains of the bedclothes and shivered without feeling cold. I would never feel cold again.

I rose slowly off of the shabby bed that had been the companion of my conversion. It reeked of sweat, blood, and the other fluids of my old life, however I could not blame its state on anyone but myself and perhaps those who had taken me. I took a strange comfort from the wasted mattress and tattered sheets. They had been my only constant companions. When my feet touched the floor I was momentarily shocked that I would only feel the stone under my feet but not the chill that would normally accompany it. I was certain the room was dank and chill… but I could not feel it. I would never feel these things again. Hopefully I would be allowed to eventually walk in the sunshine. To feel the warmth beat down on my marble skin. Right now I had no hopes. I could not afford them. I didn't know what was going to be my fate… if there is even fate for the eternally damned. That is how I felt at the moment anyway. Perhaps this is the reason that Jasper spent all of his time drowning in books on philosophy. Maybe it was the monster and the man making sense out of his own purpose, a kind of personal illumination.

As I looked around myself I noticed that the room was illuminated by its own sort of half light that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere. It cast everything in a light almost greenish hue. There were no real shadows here. Some of the green was darker… but nothing was cast too dark for me to see. A rodent was scampering in and out of a hole in the wall dragging bits of cloth that I identified as a part of my now completely demolished clothing. It reminded me of the state of my dress, and I looked down at my pale nakedness. The skin on my body seemed to radiate light in the darkness. In some places it glittered and caught my attention as I moved about lightly. I was different now. There was no question of it in my mind. The small bulge of my stomach was gone and was now toned as if I had been to some kind of expert trainer. My legs were sinuous and I could see where they corded in places on my thighs where I had never even imagined that I had muscles, and tapered down to my feet. My feet like white marble against the darkest of grey granite beneath them. Feet that, for the first time in their existence, had not yet caused me to trip. This was despite being tangled in sheets that had been torn and wrapped around themselves in the throws of agony only hours before while my flesh and bones burned from the inside out.

Remembering the shock and pain I had suffered when Aro had sprung forward and sunk his teeth into my chest I looked at my breast to examine any damage that may have followed me into my eternity, but the skin was smooth except for a small indention in the half moon shape of an in-human bite. That small imperfection that I wished I could tear out of my own body. The symbol of my immortality had not been brought to me by my heart's desire. I looked at my palm and saw that this scar too had followed me into forever. The only two marks that would be a part of my living death, and one of them was like a reminder of the life before, it was James' bite. My only evidence of myself as I had been… no, that wasn't true either. I looked at the ring that still adorned my left hand; Edward's ring had not left its place. It had not been stolen from me yet, and it sat there like a promise. It was a symbol, an endless golden circle that sat there as physical evidence of my promise that I was his. To be bound to one another in the most human way possible. Forsaking all others and binding our souls for eternity. What if Edward was right and I had lost my soul? What if Aro had taken the very thing that I had pledged to my love? I was almost surprised by the high keening wail of grief and the feeling of falling as I came to my knees. It didn't hurt to fall anymore, but the pain in my heart… the Edward sized hole that I knew so well was back. Only this time we had been cruelly ripped from one another.

I had almost romanticized my change. It would be a part of my wedding. After we had said our vows and finished saying our goodbyes for the sake of Renee and Charlie, Edward and I would convene in our last human rite. We would finally make love. To be joined as a woman and a man. This deed would be done in the way that Edward and I had decided was the best way to try. Thinking about the discussion we had actually engaged in would have caused me to blush even now, had I been able. There was going to be nothing spontaneous. We had, with much muttering on his part, and an endless stream of blushing on my part, decided on what would happen. It was for my safety. I tried to picture it in my mind and felt my breathing hitch with pain.

I had been looking forward to this just as much as I was looking forward to becoming his equal. Carlile had Esme, Jasper had Allice, Rosalie had Emmet, and now Edward would have Bella. It was like the natural order had been reached for everyone. The Volturri had destroyed our happiness as surely as poison. I had wanted Edward, my vampire lover to bring me to his lips and sink his teeth delicately into my waiting flesh. The last week had taken all of that hope and dashed it in the worst ways possible. Kidnapped, hidden away, and transformed into a monster against my will. I was now the shining example of everything I had at one time begged to be. There was nothing romantic about being angry, emotionally destroyed, alone, naked, and thirsting for blood. For that is what I felt now, the burning thirst in the back of my throat that signified my deep inhuman hunger.

Edward would have kept me from the innocent blood of humans. He would have held me back from my endless thirst. The venom filled my mouth at the very thought of feeding. It was becoming painful to the point of anguish. I would be given fresh blood. The Volturri had no compunction about the killing of innocents. After all what was unconscionable about killing a cow? I heard them approaching before they ever came near the door. My mind was becoming a haze. I could only hear the beating heart on the other side of the barred entrance. The palpitating organ was filled with fear. My body picked itself off the floor and crouched waiting for the prize on the other side of the heavy locked portal. I heard a struggle taking place.

Whatever they were brining me knew what was waiting on the other side as well. As the lock was pulled back from the door and what I could only picture was a heavy wooden bar was brought back I felt the venom pool against my tongue. I knew it would be like ecstasy. Better than the physical coupling Edward and I had planned.

A young woman was shoved through the door and the lock slammed down behind her. Tears welled from the corner of her eyes and I heard her screaming for Felix. How could he do this? How could he betray her? She wore a torn and bloody suit. It was probably expensive. I was naked. It didn't matter. She threw herself against the door as the wooden beam was brought back across the other side of the locked edifice. She banged and swore and screamed. I growled and she spun toward me. She looked for a second as if she would be sick, and then she cried out my name.

"Bella! Please! Don't do this! Bella!" Gianna cried out and fell to her knees before me, as if I had any choice. Her blood was quick and would make the thirst go away.

I could still hear the fear in her every heartbeat… I could smell it in her very breath. I hissed and she jumped back against the door again even as she was sprawled against the floor. Hadn't she wanted this for herself? Hadn't she wanted to be the monster that I was? I remembered the room full of strangers that she had willingly, probably smilingly, led to their destruction. Heidi had brought them past her desk just as surely as I had walked past with Alice and Edward. How could she possibly plead to me? How was this any different? This was sweet revenge for the souls that she had thrown to the pits of hell. I would be their sweet adjudicator.

I sprung forward and tore the distraught receptionist's clothes away from her throat. I prepared to sink my teeth deeply into her skin and tear away the flesh. To taste the sanguine liquid that pumped life through her body.

Then I heard it. The sweetest voice I had ever known.

"NO BELLA!" It was Edward. He was going to save me. This was no different than cliff diving. No different from placing myself in any other danger. I clutched at my head and felt the venom sliding down my throat. "FIGHT IT!"

I curled into a ball and locked my arms around my legs. Edward would speak to me when the draw was at its most virulent. Every time it felt as if I could not hold back he would call out to me and I would cower from myself. I rocked back and forth letting the endless moment pass. The woman cowering before me did the same. I let out a small vocalization of my misery.

I don't know how long we sat there Gianna and I. Each one lost in pain and misery. Each moment her heart beat became more steady, and so did I. Slowly I looked up at her. She was still alive with her fear.

"This is what you wanted to be? This is what you yearned for?" I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. It was the first thing I had said in this new body of mine. I sounded more lyrical than I remember. I was expecting to croak a bit from the experience of the last few days…but I was obviously physically over it.

"How is this even possible? What are you? How can you sit there and fight the hunger?" She almost brought up a hand to touch me and I snarled. I had heard her pulse get closer and I didn't want that. I wanted to sink my teeth into the waiting skin and take what had been rightfully given to me. My head snapped back down toward Gianna.

"STOP BELLA!" Edward cried out against my desires. They faded once again. I rocked gently back and forth.

"You would rather that I just let go?" I let my head fall back again.

"Definitely not, although I will meet the same end if they find you and me in here alone together. They will not let me live now that they have decided to kill me." She seemed very sure of her death now that she had calmed down enough to get used to the idea. I hoped that she had just lost her mind with fear.

"Don't get all snack-like on my account. I'm not waiting for you to get groggy and lethargic just to suck your blood when you get bored. I'm expending a lot of energy that I really don't have right now. Why don't you waste your efforts in a different way… like figuring out how we escape?" It was becoming easier to be around this despicable creature. Edward would be very proud of me.

"There is no way out of this room. That door could stand up to three newborn vampires. There is nothing for me and you but to wait here and let fate decide."

I gave her a very narrow glare at that statement. "Fate is doing too much decision making for me lately. I don't like it at all. I'm supposed to be on my honeymoon attacking a moose right now in the Alaskan wilderness… not deciding whether or not to turn you into a la carte. Please stop trying to make yourself seem tasty."

Gianna seemed to think about this for a second and I knew that she was weighing her options again. "How would you leave Volterra without being noticed? What would you do to set us free? Most importantly… we are in no visual shape to be seen outside right now. The sun is high in the sky… and you have no clothes. I look like I have been beaten. I can't even believe I am alive to have this conversation…" She looked at me as if I were some kind of unusual animal.

"What if we didn't beat aimlessly against the door? What if we took it apart?" I had seen the movie Ever After. It gave me hope against big old doors. Of course the hinge was not on my side. I would be forced to improvise. I stood and examined the door. It was every bit as solid as Gianna had made it seem. Until I started to peel back the metal braces on the wood. Each band of metal slowly pulled away from the door and the thick nails and screws that bound it together. I was taking apart a very old very historic door… with my fingers. It was a little strange… but also liberating.

"What are we supposed to do when we are done taking apart the door? Run for the rest my life? You think they won't just go back to Forks and find the Cullen family wherever they go? Aro wants you! He has seen your potential. There is nothing that he won't do now that he has seen all of this." Gianna pointed to herself and then to the door.

"Well… that's why I'm going to go see him." The woman stared at me in shock. I was not doing anything positive for her blood pressure. It was going through the roof again.

"WHY?" The woman looked at me with a crazed gleam in her eyes. "You think he went to all of this trouble just to give up?"

"I think he'll understand his position when I explain it to him. I want my family back. I want peace. He took everything from me…" I was getting angry and snarling slightly in the recently viciously fired secretary's face. She cowered away from me and Edward came into my mind again, cooling the fires of my thirst. "I am leaving. I am going back to Forks, getting married, and then saying goodbye to my Mom and Dad. Then I am going to Alaska with my husband. I don't particularly care what has been planned for me here in Voterra. I want to go home… if there is anything left to go home to."

The planks started coming away from the frame and I set them in a neat pile by the opening. For some reason I couldn't just tear apart such an old and persevering piece of history. Maybe it was my usual respect for stuff that was older than me. I stepped into the hallway my hair blowing gently in the drafty portal. I began my walk away from the room I had been "reborn" in and Gianna got up and cowered behind me as I walked freely, nakedly, up the stairs and toward what I hoped was the unmistakable scent of Aro.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_

Feel free to tell me what you think. I hope I left you at a good place. I will respond to any questions you might have as quickly as possible. I am a wife and mother first so please be patient.


	2. Breaking the Surface

Escaping Sol: YA Edition

Chapter 2:

Breaking the Surface

Ranma15177

Big thank you once again to my YA editor Tammy, as well as Cullenista my other beta. Tammy is responsible for the re-write and I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of her help and guidance in this project!

EPOV:

It has been a few days since I moved. My family has allowed me my quiet contemplation. They have not since that third day, even so much as approached me. Sometime on the second day Carlisle came to sit with me. He didn't say anything. He was just as full of pain as I was. His eyes searched endlessly in the water, just like mine did, waiting to see some sign of her body there amongst the waves and rocks.

Esme, I had seen in his mind, sat just staring out the window toward the mountains. It had been some time since she had stirred. When he had asked after her she had looked up and whispered. "I have lost them both." He had come out here after that. He and I did not speak. We didn't have to. '_This_ _is going to destroy him._' Is the only thing that he thought before leaving me to my quiet contemplation.

I knew that Carlisle was right, so I said nothing either. I have been staring out at the sea for an answer that has not been forthcoming. I had once thought of school as purgatory. Now I knew for certain that I had moved beyond a no man's land in Catholic dogma. I was in hell.

I sat next to the very place that Jacob saw Jane throw Bella's body. I had been unable to do anything but sit here and wait. I would wait until her body was found. I would bury her in the cold ground here in Forks, and I would sit here for eternity waiting to catch a glimpse of her spirit here where she died.

I don't really believe in ghosts. Certainly someone who happens to be a vampire has no business deciding which myths are real and which are not, however it's been my experience that I've had no such experience. I would wait here until I did. I had not broken down. My hell was silent.

"Hey." It was Jacob again. I wish that he would leave me alone like my family had. Unfortunately he seemed to have elected himself as my shadow. He held himself responsible for Bella's death. On some level I wished I did too. It would make it easier to hate Jacob Black.

Unfortunately I knew better. Jacob would have gladly died for her sake that day. He had fought against the Volturri guard valiantly. He had tried to spare me this pain. No, he had tried to save Bella. It was the same thing to me though, and so I was grateful. I already owed Jacob much. Too much, because he had seen it, and without his mind, without his thoughts I would never have known. They would have simply come for her and she would have just disappeared. I would have never known where she'd gone… just that she had.

"Jacob." It was the most I'd said to him. I hadn't spoken to him in the last few days of my sitting here. I hadn't spoken to him while I had been hunting for traces of my Bella in the sea. It was all I did on August 13th.

I swam through the water looking for her all throughout our wedding day. I saw what Jacob had seen. Her body sailed like a rag doll over the cliff face after the one amongst the Volturri guard that I didn't know had snapped her neck. I believed Jacob had told us the truth not just because he had been witness to her death, but because he too came here to grieve. Here amongst the dead and the eternally damned.

"Hey… it isn't like I enjoyed the silent treatment or anything, but I can't help noticing that there are words escaping your mouth." Jacob sat down next to me on the ground. It had rained again leaving the ground soggy. I stared off toward the horizon wondering when the silent pain of my suffering would end. "I know how you feel. It's kind of like you can't breathe… like nothing is going to be alright. Never again."

How could this mongrel possibly know how I feel? Bella was supposed to be my wife by now. She and I were going to Alaska to see the northern lights and begin her new life with me. I had a tormenting vision of her sliding down over my body as her fingers slowly opened my shirt. We had made plans. She and I were going to join as a woman and man.

We had made an agreement that she and I were going to be together for an eternity. Now all I had to look forward to was this emptiness. "No… you have no concept of how I feel Jacob. You couldn't possibly fathom what this is like for me."

"Sure, sure because she isn't dead for just you, right? The rest of us can't possibly feel like the world just ended huh? You know what you filthy bloodsucker…" The anger was rolling off of Jacob Black like water. I broke eye contact with the fathomless ocean and looked over at the angry young wolf-boy.

As our eyes met and Jacob looked into my face it stopped. He whipped his head back toward the sea. "Stop looking at me like that. Stop telling me to kill you with your eyes. I won't do it. One hundred years is a long time to wait for someone. I'm not gonna' argue with that. I only waited over the course of six months for a smile. Maybe I don't know what it's like. She loved you right? She loved you more than me, more than Charlie and her Mom, and more than life itself. She was going to give that up last week right? You were going to make her like you?"

I looked at the way his eyes narrowed. I couldn't help feeling that we had both been broken beyond repair but that Jacob had been that way for a little longer than me. "Yes… that's how it was going to be. It's what she wanted. Somehow she thought it would bring us equality. It's funny. She always seemed to be under this horrible misconception that I was better than her. I thought she was perfect. I didn't want this for her." Jacob looked back at me with shock in his eyes.

I was angry with Jacob's assumption on my person and I'm sure that it reflected in every word that I spoke. "Don't be so surprised Jacob Black. Just because you think I'm a complete monster with no heart and soul doesn't mean I can't be self aware." I looked back into the churning waves. "I didn't want her to lose her soul either." Jacob jumped up from his place by the ocean and glared at the forest behind us. Alice walked through the undergrowth and leaned against the tree closest to us.

"Hey, Alice." Jacob walked forward and Alice hugged the large man as my eyes popped. How could so much have changed in the space of a week? How was it that the destruction of everything that I held dear resulted in this?

Alice pulled back with a grimace and so did Jacob "You stink." They both said at the same time and let a smile pass their lips. There was no laughter. The laughter was absent from our lives. Bella was the one who had brought about this strange truce in us and she had taught us how to laugh together, even tenuously. The two of us were mortal enemies, but in the face of our grief we were the same. Both sides lost in limbo until answers were gained.

"Are you here to cheer us up again? If you are then you can turn around and find somewhere else to be," Jacob questioned quietly.

Alice tried to look offended, but her misery was in her eyes before I could agree with Jacob. The thought that I could actually agree with anything that the young werewolf said gaining more in my opinion that Bella had created a sort of magic in us. Something was different about us and the pack.

We had worked together, fought together, and now we were grieving together. Something was pulling us into a strange partnership. I looked up at Alice and said the first words I had to her in a week. "Please Alice. Tell me that you've seen something. Give me hope that there is a chance that this is all some kind of nightmare."

Alice followed my example from earlier and looked out at the sea saying something I had not expected. "It's not a nightmare. You can't wake up, because you can never sleep. Nothing is going to make this just go away. Edward, I want revenge. I want to break and demolish and destroy. I want to find Jane and twist her head free from her undead shoulders and I want you to help me light the match. I'll go alone if that's what I have to do. I didn't see this coming. I should have seen this coming!"

She looked slightly hysterical. My sister was sobbing dryly and Jacob was holding her small shoulders as she began to advance toward me. Alice's eyes were black with vengeance and her tone was darkness incarnate to match, "I want to witness their demise with my own eyes. I want justice at my own hands! Please Edward, stand with me and fight back!"

"Finally!" Emmett came crashing through the bushes clapping Jacob on the back, his voice triumphant and at the same time dangerous. "I knew we would finally come to this conclusion. Let's take the fight to them! You don't just come into Forks and start crap with the Cullen family. Are you guys going to come with us Jacob?"

Jacob was still holding Alice's shoulders but his mood darkened and I saw images of Bella's death flash before his eyes, and each face that had been executioner or witness at the slaughter of my bride to be. The pure hate and joy that it elicited in him to imagine himself, teeth flashing and tearing through their bodies as we cut a bloody swath through our revenge sent a wave of pain through me.

Emmett continued talking and began pacing. "I want you guys to come Jacob. Get Sam. Tell them we're going together! They will never expect a bunch of Vampires to come to Volterra with a big pack of Werewolves. They won't know what hit them."

"No." It was Jasper with a flat rebuttal aimed directly at Emmett. I was beginning to feel very crowded. The thoughts and now emotions of everyone around me were becoming cloying. I felt like tearing into my flesh or throwing myself over the cliff to join Bella in the churning sea. Why were they all here now? What had drawn them all here after all this time? Perhaps they were finished grieving. "What the Volturi do for the Vampires is irreplaceable. They can't be extinguished. We would be lawless monsters without them," my newest brother exclaimed with confidence.

Alice hissed and struck Jasper. "How dare you!" His eyes were wide and a feeling of desperate pain filled my senses. Everyone reeled with it. "Emmett is right! We should be storming their gates and destroying everything that they are. What gives them the right to pass judgment? What is going to stop them from coming here and destroying the rest of us? What is going to stop them from coming here to take me from you Jasper?" She tore completely free from Jacob's hands and clutched at her husband. "MY SISTER! They killed my sister, Jasper! Surely you would feel differently if they had torn me apart and lit me on fire? Or maybe it doesn't matter to you what happens?" A wave of torment slid through my already muddled thoughts. "I will go with them to Volterra…whatever you might say Jasper. I have to find justice. This was their brand of justice Jasper. I will not stand by another minute…"

"I'll go with you Alice, Emmett. I want to speak for my brothers… but I can't. I will go to Sam and beg if I have to. I want what Alice wants. I want revenge. If they hadn't beaten me so badly I would have protected her… I'm sorry I failed." Jacob shivered for a second and was silenced as he morphed into a wolf. The russet wolf was diving through the self same bushes that had probably been the last to touch my Bella's skin alive, and away into the forest, presumably to speak with his brothers. They had probably stuck to her clothes and scratched her skin. I could smell her dried blood on them. A vicious howl broke the silence that had suddenly occurred in the clearing. Waves struck the shore.

"Alice, please! Please reconsider this. I can't lose you. I can't live in this existence without you by my side. I remember what it was like. The emptiness…" Jasper was still standing there with Alice in his arms, for his hands had come to clutch her shoulders like hers had been clutched to his. "We can't disturb the order of things. This is a reminder of that order. I loved Bella too Alice. I loved her like a sister, but the Volturi had warned us before that we were to make a decision in their time. You didn't see when that time would be. Now, there is nothing we can do for her."

"One day Jasper! ONE! It isn't fair!" Alice fell to her knees next to me and shuddered with muted sobs.

"I'll go wherever you go love." I heard him mutter and fall next to her. His arms secure around her shoulders. "I'll die for you if it's what you want, and I'll wait for you on the other side… wherever it is that we go…" Jasper whispered into her hair. _'I was only put here to love you. I can do that in hell just as well as I can do it here_.' His thoughts made me wish I could be in heaven with Bella. Be wherever it was that she was. Feel my arms around her warmth. Her blush filled my senses.

I couldn't hold back any longer. A long keening wail that I didn't know I'd been holding back filled the silence. Sobs wracked my shoulders. I wanted to cry. I wanted to destroy this place that was full of the last moments of Bella's screams. I wanted to kill the Volturi. I wanted… to die.

"Edward." It was Emmett. He was holding me like a child with my head against his chest. The giant hollow chest with no heart… but that was filled with more conviction and care for me than I could probably fathom. My hands had torn through the dirt and I was clawing at the ground.

My family was suddenly around me. Carlisle had come to my other side and pulled me into his arms. I didn't fight it. Emmett remained with his hand on my arm Jasper and Alice were behind me. Esme and Rosalie burst through the trees and fell onto us. I didn't want to be alone anymore. I wanted them to know the depths of this grief I felt. I kept trying to speak but all I could do was shudder, cry out, and sob endlessly. Now that the floodgates had been opened I didn't know how to stop them. Their thoughts were all the same. Thoughts spared on my behalf.

'_I will do anything for you Edward. I will go to the ends of the earth to make this right. Bella was going to be your other half, like Esme to me. I won't let you suffer alone.'_

'_I have never known this kind of peace. I won't lose Alice, but I won't lose you either Edward. I love you both.'_

'_Hell, here we come. I will fight anyone that comes near us again. Edward is going to get his peace.'_

'_How will we ever survive this? Bella made her choice…I may not have agreed with it… but it was hers to make. This is worse than my story. Worse because someone was left in this world to grieve.'_

'_I will destroy their happiness just like they destroyed ours. I will see this through to the end. Bella, my sister… I promise to make them suffer.'_

'_My family. My Edward. I will make this right… and then I will let you go… if that is what you need. I understand your grief far better than anyone. The sorrow of losing a child is much like the anguish of losing a lover. You have seen what it did to me, how I reacted.'_

I fell against them. My head laid back, and the emotions flooding through me. For once Jasper just reciprocated. Everyone shuddered against my pain. It flooded me. I cried out and it was like their hands were holding me together. I felt as if I was flying apart and because Jasper was there they were sharing in this feeling. It was terrifying.

Esme gasped against the raw emotion, "My son, God… my son." My head was in her lap and stared sightlessly at the clouds above. Rain began to fall on our collected mass the clouds weeping in a way that we could not. A pile of arms and legs, torsos and heads that had passed away long ago but left to feel everything that was human with no way to express it. Suddenly it wasn't enough to lay there with them. I had to explain what I was feeling. If they could hear the things I had been silently contemplating maybe they would see just how horrified I was with the prospect of living through this.

"Bella. My Bella. WHY? Why would anyone do this? Why did they come for her and leave me here? Why couldn't they have killed me too? If this is my punishment I would have gladly taken her place. I would have died for her or at least I would have died with her. I swear to God I would have! WHY?" My words made real in the world were like daggers to my body.

It was like the pain was throbbing through us and when the wolf pack arrived there by the ocean cliff they ducked down their bodies as if the emotion was flattening them to the ground. The large russet wolf that I knew was Jacob crawled forward through the waves of pain and curled up next to us. He wanted to feel this. He wanted to know what it was like to be me. I heard it in his head. He wanted to share in my pain for Bella's sake. I spoke again, the words bitter and despairing. "Dear God! Where is she? Why can't we find her body? Why can't I even have that? Is what I had planned so against God that he is punishing me?"

"Edward, No!" It was Carlisle. "God is merciful and loving. I don't believe for one second that he would punish one such as you. You who have chosen to live this unending life of ours by upholding life. By adhering to the laws of Moses and Abraham, you have never turned your back on Him. Why would he punish you?"

"What about my rebellion Carlisle? What of that? I have felt the glory of man's blood sliding down my throat. I am no angel! I am an abomination! I am a demon! Perhaps this is my penance for my time in the darkness. Maybe I am not made to love!" As I said the words my anger flared and Jasper crumpled against Alice. "Remember the sorrow I brought to her? Remember the pain and the darkness she walked through to save me just recently?"

"Edward… she wanted this." This time the voice was Alice. Her tone was small and full of pain. She shuddered against Jasper's crumpled form. "She loved you so much. Bella wanted you just as much as you wanted her. Don't say those things anymore. I won't let you. Don't hurt her. She deserves better than that Edward."

'_I know. I won't let the pain of this stop me though. I'll do this for you. I'll do this for her, because you are what she wanted. I never thought I would ever say this… but I am going to fight for the sake of you both. She won't know peace until you do."_ Jacob made no movements but I could feel the finality in his statement. He would fight until there was nothing left. Her Jacob. Her miniature sun.

I felt my body curling into itself and the pain stopped flooding through us. I was alone with it again. Alone but for the russet wolf lying next to me… eyes fixed on the sea, on the horizon. Jasper had finally closed down. He let a wave of comfort cover us. I didn't feel it like everyone else. I just laid there wishing someone would end this. Emmett turned toward the pack and raised his fist in the air and let out a snarl. It was followed by howling in every direction.


	3. A Strange Compromise

Escaping Sol: YA Edition

Chapter 3:

A Strange Compromise

Ranma15177

I'm working through each chapter and adding a bit of new flavor in parts, so those of you that have read the mature version of the story will see new bits here and there to make up for the total lack of naughtiness.

Thank you again to Tammy my YA editor, she really did an excellent job on these early chapters! I would have been lost without her input and all of her endlessly hard work! Also, my full time beta Cullenista, whom I couldn't write proper English without!

BPOV

I walked through the drafty old stronghold noticing my sure steps. I never tripped up the stairs; never fell over my own feet. The only thing that could have possibly been more disconcerting than my steady feet was Gianna's unsteady ones. She constantly fell or stumbled along the stones of the hall. Only my strange mental quirk was keeping her alive…and she wasn't creeping me out just because she was clumsy. That I could definitely on some level identify with.

Only a few days ago I had tripped over my own feet and nearly gone careening down the stairs to my doom. The only thing that had stopped that was Edward. Even thinking his name caused the hole in my un-beating heart to fray at the edges. Would I ever see him again? Was I going to be hidden here in Volterra forever?

The Volturi could definitely hide me for as long as it took for the Cullen family to give up. They would probably tell them that they had made their decision. That I had gone wherever the tourists that day had gone. The other thing that was creeping me out about my compatriot was that she didn't seem to know whether I was protecting her or saving her for later and she seemed to be switching philosophies on each floor we visited.

"You're terrifying her. Maybe that's why she's so manic." Edward whispered in my ear.

I could only imagine Edward's pain and guilt if he was lead to believe they'd killed me. I whimpered out of true despair. It was the first time I had made a noise since leaving my cell. What if he hurt himself? What if he demanded for someone to destroy him? Would Carlisle allow it? I started to uselessly hyperventilate.

Unfortunately, my unnecessary gasping opened the floodgate of smells onto my already thirst crazed brain anew. I had spent the entire time so far walking down the hall with the ex-receptionist while creepily not breathing and wishing I had just drunk her blood instead of waiting for Edward's approval. What was one tasty bookkeeper after all? It was all relative, especially if she was right and they were just going to kill her the moment I walked through the door with her. I forced myself to stop hyperventilating for the sake of my companion... Edward's voice.

"Bella darling, you're going to make it worse." He was probably right.

No, the truth about my not killing the woman stumbling behind me was that I knew my family half-way around the world would disapprove. They would be very disappointed. Could Edward possibly call me anything more than a monster if I gave in now? Without doubt all of the words he'd called me before would no longer apply, Angel, certainly never again.

Carlisle would be accepting, but pitying of my lack of early judgment. Esme would love me regardless, but she would get that worried crease on her beautiful brow. Jasper would probably be upset…not because I ate Gianna. Of anyone in my family he would understand that particular lapse in judgment. No, Jasper would be angry because he lost the bet with Emmett because I only ate Gianna... Oh… that was a very morbid thought. Emmett didn't think me capable of a mass killing, or maybe he thought himself capable of stopping me.

"We would never let you hurt anyone if it were in our power to stop you. Emmett loves you. Jasper loves you. He doesn't want to be the one screwing up… but he doesn't want you screwing up either." I believed that.

Of course I felt, no I was certain, that if I did in fact indulge in what every sense I had was begging me to do it would end in glorious red liquid dripping down my throat. Saturating every thirsty inch of my hunger with intense hot wet abandon and calming the demon that was screaming inside my head that I was owed what pumped uselessly through the creature next to me.

"Bella. Don't think about the hunger. Think about your family. Think about me." It was Edward again. He was right. If I kept vacillating back to thoughts of the sweet blood in Gianna's veins I would most certainly fail.

I distantly wondered again what it was Emmett and Jasper were betting with. Rosalie would already be fierce, but I figure it's mostly due to my being a vampire. According to her I was supposed to be doing my hair and birthing babies, and now that was definitely out of the picture, with or without Edward's help.

I gave another shudder at my love's name. When he wasn't talking to me it hurt to think of him. Alice…OH! ALICE! What grizzly scenes had she already seen? Me, probably driving my teeth through tender flesh and savaging the woman behind me like some kind of red eyed demon? Wait…ALICE!!

Why had they not come for me yet? Alice had always been able to see me before. Obviously they had not been able to see my abduction because of Jacob, but what would have caused them to neglect me here now? Had they been hurt as well?

"We would never leave you alone to face this nightmare." I knew that.

That is why my fiancé's name made me hurt so much. He hadn't come for me. If he hadn't come for me, then it was possible that they had killed him. It was the only way I could picture them getting away with this. I ached with the thought.

If the Volturri had hurt my family I would spend every day of my immortality planning ways to destroy them. I pictured Edward being ripped apart like I had seen the newborns, and I walked ever faster down the hall. I began walking back and forth between the walls as well as down the hall. Weaving a pattern down toward where I knew there would be a bank of elevators and then a reception hall.

"You aren't at you're most perceptive right now. Do you know where you are love?" Yes. I knew.

I realized at that moment that I had something that no one in this building had. It wasn't bloodlust. I was pretty sure we all had that in common and at this point I was pretty sure that it was my super secret ability. I looked back at Gianna and inhaled. She whimpered.

No, I had surprise on my side… like the fact that I was dragging my intended dinner with me like a to-go cup. Or the startling detail of my nudity. That might throw them for a couple of seconds. It would have made me come up short. Or it could even be something as small as the notion that I had gotten through a door that according to the wibbling woman behind me couldn't be broken by three newborn vampires, and I was just one. Really surprise would have to do right now because I didn't know how to fight, or tell the future, or read minds. I cried out and began running up a small set of carpeted stairs.

"I could never read your mind." It was because I didn't work right. _'Maybe you're a part of that.'_

As we ascended to a floor where there was carpet that I recognized, I walked out into a hallway that could have been in any office building. There were many doors that reminded me lightly of a hotel. Each one seemed to need a key card. Hmmm. They give me ancient expensive wood when they could simply settle for particle board and time released locks. I began to wonder if it was out of respect or nostalgia.

Gianna's heart was going at a million miles an hour now. Each floor seemed to bring with it a new reason for faster palpitation. At this stage I kind of wondered if I had simply saved her only to have her frail human heart explode.

Either way, I guessed I was getting closer and chuffed lightly when Edward reminded me once again that Gianna was indeed a person and not a treat. I was so pleased to hear his voice after the grim mental picture that I stopped and closed my eyes. Gianna tripped into me and shrieked when I hissed at her for interrupting me.

"NO! She's just frightened! Bella STOP!" I did stop.

It was at this point that I made the startling revelation that I might be losing my mind. Of course this would be considered something completely permissible at this point. I mean, I had been kidnapped and killed just recently. I started to stumble a bit along the hallway as I began to sob tearlessly.

I wasn't entirely sure if one could get a Multiple Personality Disorder from turning into a vampire. It made sense in a weird kind of way. Maybe the Edward in my head was like Bella2 or something equally messed up. Even then, would I be treatable? I could only imagine Carlisle strapping me down to a couch with barbed wire asking me about Renee. Remembering Renee made me happy.

I remembered my mother. For some reason this caused me to chuckle. This caused Gianna to start pulling against me and trying to break free. Now we weaved back and forth through the hall going forward but in a crazy sort of listless pull and drag that was probably reminiscent of some kind of comedy skit. Only one of us was crying and screaming.

"It's not funny. Believe me." I did know my Edward, but I didn't know how to stop now.

"Let me go! Please!" Gianna pulled her arm uselessly from against my grip. Her legs were no longer propelling her forward and I was dragging her down the hall as she leaned back against my weight. It was the first time anyone had ever done that and gotten a negative result.

A hazy memory came back to me. I was pushing against someone or something while they forced their lips against mine, and feeling frustrated. It scared me because I couldn't remember who was kissing me at that moment. Was I losing memories this quickly?

The secretary that I was taking for a drag started to cry out and scramble even more determinately. "Don't take me in there! I don't want to go! You're losing control already… I can tell! I can't go in there with them. They'll tear me into pieces!" My sanity was being torn into pieces.

"You're here. You don't need to struggle anymore. My Bella. Let go of her." Edward's voice reminded me that this was the room we had met Aro in before.

"Well. This is the place. Let's go Gianna!" She screamed. I threw the woman in ahead of me and walked into the tower room with the grate and pulled the large door closed behind me.

"Bella! Finally!" Aro was sitting in the wooden throne in front of me. Nothing was different from the last time I was here except for me. Now I was a blood crazed naked vampire. I was at a bit of a disadvantage. Unfortunately my earlier summation seemed to be wrong. Being naked, strong, and surprising was apparently not going to do it for me here in the heart of Volterra. They had already known I was on my way up.

"Did you get lost dear?" I shook my head and had the distinct feeling that Aro wasn't talking down to me. "Felix, please pick up Gianna off the ground and bring her to me. I think our lovely newborn Bella needs a visual aid." The vampire to my left whom I remembered was Felix brought the woman harshly up off her knees. She scrabbled against the floor with her feet and made pathetic cries as she tried to get free.

Aro addressed me in a fatherly tone, as if I were just a confused child. "Now Bella, you will find that I am a doting father. I want you to be happy. Can you just imagine what Edward would say if I brought you back in this condition? Crazy and not very happy, and as we watched you on the monitors I think it's pretty clear which road you are headed down. Ha! Ha! Ha!" The laugh I had remembered from the last internment here did not remind me of happier times. He was suddenly serious. "Watch carefully dear."

"Please no!" I wasn't sure if I had cried out or the struggling woman. Gianna's neck snapped like a small twig in the old shale like hands and Aro ripped open her throat with his teeth. I shuddered against what instinct told me was right and what Edward screamed was wrong. Blood dripped slowly over his chin. I was jealous for his indulgence.

The leader of the Volturi held up Gianna toward me. "Drink. She's already dead, but the blood is still warm. It won't hurt. It will make the thirst go away darling girl." I shook my head and slumped over again rocking gently as I felt myself flying apart inside. "Oh, Good Lord, what has Carlisle done to the younger generation in the New World? Felix?" The seeming fragile hands of the older vampire held the woman up and he drank her blood as if he were holding a chalice. When he was done he threw the body down on the floor and Felix pushed her through the grate below.

I cried out. I didn't know Gianna. I definitely didn't like her, but no one deserved to die like that. It was then that I remembered the inference that the young woman in the expensive suit had made. Felix had been her lover. My eyes widened in shock.

Aro read my look with mild curiosity, but continued in a very parental tone, "You look horrified. Please before you assume that I am some kind of disgusting monster, which I'm sure you already believe me to be, allow me to make it up to you."

"How? How could you betray her like that Felix?" The named vampire looked at me in mild irritation. Aro smiled at me like I was his favorite new toy.

"I figure we're just about even from where I stand." I was even more shocked by his offhand answer…that seemed to suggest that this tie had meant nothing. The woman whom I supposed had loved him was nothing to him.

"Felix, please, I'm sure that after suffering through the change you would understand that she is still very confused. She would understand better if we were a little less abrasive. Let us be the example. The… reserve…" He rolled his eyes and then smiled in my direction as if he were doing something for me. Like a father would give a daughter a gift.

"Yes my Lord Aro." Felix bowed out and disappeared, returning seconds later carrying something.

"I first want to clear up some misinterpretations… things are not quite as they seem to you now. Also, we must get you something to feed upon. Believe it or not you're going to need your strength if you are going to proceed. My boy?" He seemed loath to do it, but Aro pointed in my direction.

I feared something terrible. I was probably going to develop an issue with the word 'feed'. I was sure that I was going to be taken aback when the old man said anything about feeding. Afraid, at this point, that he would come up with something more horrifying to tempt my new palate, something like babies… or children.

I was surprised when my arm was full of cat, some kind of domesticated house cat. Not a mountain lion, or a grizzly bear, but a house cat. "Please dear, make do for now. Just do as I showed you and get the crazies out?" The Volturi leader laughed at his joke.

I looked down at the cat in my hands, shrugged my shoulders because Edward did not stop me now, and did as I was asked. Some part of me shied away from the thought that this might be someone's pet. Edward's voice seemed to fade further in my now blood sated haze, and I began to panic.

I must have looked like I had gone two steps back because Aro looked at me with true concern in his eyes. "Now, now Bella Cullen. We made a deal you and I."

"No! You stole me from my home, and my wedding, and ruined my life! I REMEMBER! You turned me into a blood sucking fiend, and most probably killed my family. I just ate a cat! Oh, poor Charlie! Edward!" I fell into a heap on the floor and shuddered against the pain stroking the fur on the carcass. "Besides that… I'm still Bella Swan. I never…" I looked down at the thing I was petting and threw it away from me.

"Nonsense Bella, I would no more kill Carlisle and his family than I would cut off something vital from my own body. There are no reports of the untimely death of your father Charlie, and there is no purpose in killing him… unless you have been sharing family secrets?" I shook my head abruptly. "If you want to hear the whole story you're going to have to be calm."

I watched as each one of the Volturi filed into the room, and Aro, Caius, and Marcus, nighttime patrons of the arts stood before me once again, but somehow I couldn't help but notice that there were some obvious missing persons.


End file.
